The ones I have seen coming out of the Almonds are generally busting out of their hives. Guess it's something about all the pollen patties and feed that you have to give them to get ready for the almonds. Or maybe the Almond pollen just drives them crazy. One problem with the ones I have seen are that they are very light... often running on fumes and have to be fed heavily.. immediately.

03-07-2012, 07:25 PM

Nick Noyes

Re: Ccd

These bees were a mad. We made them mad. Take your house throw it on a truck haul 750 miles set it down wait 5 days. Then turn the basement into the upstairs and upstairs into the basement. Now fill the freezer and fridge full of groceries and say get your ***** to work cause that isn't going to last. How happy would you be? Sometimes things need to get done and this is how it happens.
We reverse them to stimulate them to clean house. As Mark pointed out it makes feeding and hive manipulations go faster also.
The video was taken Feb 5th of this year about 10 days prior to almond bloom. This was our last load going into almonds. I would like to do another video but my video guy is still in ND.
We are pulling brood and bees now to hopefully keep them from swarming. They have done well this year in the almonds.
Nutrition is very important. Don' skimp on the feed.

03-07-2012, 07:31 PM

Keith Jarrett

Re: Ccd

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick Noyes

We are pulling brood and bees now to hopefully keep them from swarming. .

Good luck.... you will never catch up with them :), those bees that went in good are on fire right now.

03-07-2012, 07:45 PM

Nick Noyes

Re: Ccd

They are big but not as swarmy acting as I thought they would be.
We have a lot of brood orders to fill so that will help. We will probably send a few into the trees but that happens.

03-08-2012, 06:35 AM

NowThen

Re: Ccd

Nick,

Great video!

As soon as you pull the boxes off of the pallet, you manipulate something on the bottom board. What are you doing there?

Also, at the very end of the video, what is that fella spraying on the ground?

Thanks!

03-08-2012, 06:43 AM

sqkcrk

Re: Ccd

Yeah Phil, I wondered about that too. Thought maybe there was something he didn't want there, but he didn't scrape the bottom board clean, which is what I will often do when I have a hive off the pallet. Just cleaning the bottom board.

Look at the video again and I think you will notice that he is moving an entrance block back in place to reduce the entrance before feeding.

I noticed, early in the video, what looked like a small block of protien patty. Or was that something else?

03-08-2012, 07:47 AM

irwin harlton

Re: Ccd

Also his application of oxalic acid, didn't look very scientific to me, I would like to see what kind of results were obtained with this application, re -mite load before and then after application

I don't mean to be critical, time factor involved in running large no. of colonies,getting the job done and getting satisfactory results are always in play

03-08-2012, 08:07 AM

sqkcrk

Re: Ccd

I guess I should have watched the vid to the very end, then I woulkd have seeen the OA application. It looks to me like a "measured" amount is being applied in the way someone w/ thousands to get thru would do it. Probably about as effective as anyone elses method.

OA is used in the annually applied arsenal of mite treatments, used so as to avoid resistance to any one material.

03-08-2012, 08:46 AM

hpm08161947

Re: Ccd

I think that was Oxalic they were spraying in those hives... not on the ground. Must work... I know.. a few years ago we got a pile of Nick's bees... right out of the almonds... very low mites... according to the State Inspector.

03-08-2012, 10:18 AM

Oldtimer

Re: Ccd

Quote:

Also his application of oxalic acid, didn't look very scientific to me

Ha Ha, yes that's the thing being commercial and running a lot of hives. When I was doing it small hobbyists would come for a look, and tell me I was "rough". They would be disgusted even. It didn't seem to compute, that my bees made 2 or 3 x's as much honey as theirs, the hives were all even, and in good health.

03-08-2012, 10:27 AM

sqkcrk

Re: Ccd

Quote:

Originally Posted by irwin harlton

Also his application of oxalic acid, didn't look very scientific to me,

I imagine there is a range of efficacy, don't you?

03-08-2012, 04:48 PM

jim lyon

Re: Ccd

Now cut that out Nick and Keith. You will destroy the myth of the wimpy chemical laden bees being over run with super mites. **** that fancy new pollen sub and those worthless commercial genetics.;)

03-08-2012, 05:52 PM

Skinner Apiaries

Re: Ccd

Nick, I think ya'll have magic bees ;P Seriously good stuff. The requeening tip made us this year. Now to keep these big doubles from starving!!!

03-08-2012, 07:48 PM

Keith Jarrett

Re: Ccd

Quote:

Originally Posted by irwin harlton

I don't mean to be critical, time factor involved in running large no. of colonies,getting the job done and getting satisfactory results are always in play

Hey Irwin, do those bees of Nick's look just satisfactory ?? IMHO, those bees are going to bee tough to keep in the box right about now. I myself shook 4000 lb out of mine before the almonds so I have some wiggle room. Me thinks you get what you put in. :)
Good luck too all this spring. Keith

03-08-2012, 08:23 PM

Oldtimer

Re: Ccd

OK well forgive a guy from the other side of the world who doesn't understand this almond thing, but seriously, I'd always been led to believe that almond pollination was tough on hives and they came out in pretty bad shape. (Maybe I've been hanging out in the treatment free forum too much LOL!).

So, what you guys are saying, is that the hives come out of almonds pretty strong? Light, but strong?
So what's all this other stuff I've been getting told all these years?

03-08-2012, 08:43 PM

sqkcrk

Re: Ccd

I think what is going on is that strong hives going into almonds come out strong. Could be the Nutra_Bee has something to do w/ it.

03-08-2012, 09:50 PM

jim lyon

Re: Ccd

The short answer is "garbage in garbage out" but that dosent really tell the whole story. Most of the almond orchards are essentially irrigated deserts. Not much happens before or after the bloom. Add to that shipping times of up to 3 days one way, delayed releases and possible poor buildup weather and you have a lot of factors potentially working against you. We have gotten a lot of really good bees out of the almonds through the years but it's hardly a sure thing.

03-09-2012, 11:30 AM

swarm_trapper

Re: Ccd

Nick nice bees! Do you requeen every year? id like to hear more about the oxalic

03-11-2012, 03:40 PM

Barry

Re: Ccd

Just want to make a plug for Joe making a plug!

Nutra-Bee
There are lots of pollen-protein feed supplements out there, but the one I’ve heard the best reports on is Nutra-Bee by Keith Jarrett. At least two of our beekeepers use it and have great almond bees. To see a video on Nutra-Bee, do a Search for Feeding Bees Nutra-Bee. Keith feeds heavily in the fall and by January has 2 boxes so full of bees that he shakes them into boxes for other beekeepers so that they can meet their almond commitments. For info and prices, contact Keith at (916)205-2400 (cell) or (209)223-9616 (home).

Saturday I heard a report-out re a Harvard-based study of CCD. They tried to replicate the appearance of CCD - and seem to have been successful (deserted hives, few dead bees). They implicated Imidocloprid, a Bayer-produced pesticide. It's being used by Monsanto on its GM corn. It's a neonicotinoid and it permeates the entire corn plant. Logic suggests that it could show up in any corn syrup made from that corn - that hasn't been checked yet, but commercial beeks who feed corn syrup seem to have been especially hard hit. Apparently Monsanto backed off on using it as much. That, and perhaps a winnowing to produce resistant bees, has made CCD less horrific than it was at first. Imidocloprid was introduced in 2006. When did CCD hit the news?